“There seems to be a lot of hate in the world”: Why Australian women marched against Trump.

On Friday night, Donald Trump placed his hand on a bible and took the Oath of Office to become the 45th President of the United States of America.

On Saturday, 15,700km away, more than 3000 people filled the streets of the Sydney CBD for the Women’s March, a grassroots movement that began in Washington D.C. and spread around the world.

Yes, many were there to protest against Trump’s ascension. But for most it was a chance to promote the unity, equality, diversity that were so overlooked during the election cycle, to ensure the voices of the marginalised are heard and to send a message to the new ‘leader of the free world’ that human rights are not selective.

Mamamia was among the crowd in Sydney, and spoke to a handful of those attending. We asked them one simple question: Why are you marching?

Theresa.

Advertisement

“I’m marching today because I’m an American living abroad and I feel like I need to do as much as I can from here for everybody living at home. There are a lot of echoes of what Trump says in politicians here, so I also feel like it’s a very common cause.”

Deborah.

"I'm here to support equality, to support women and to really have an active presence in response to the recent Presidential election and now inauguration of Trump. I'm pretty much against 100 per cent of his policies around immigration and Planned Parenthood, and how that impacts the rest of the world. Rather than being shutdown by what's happened, being here is my way of being an active citizen of Australia and the world."

Becky.

"I am here to support women. I'm particularly here to support women and children who are caught up in a Family Court situation... We are still in the system after six years, my family, and that's not in the best interest of the child."

"I'm here because I think fascism and racism always finds its way in, whether it's here or in America or Europe or anywhere else in the world. So it needs resistance and us to stand strong against us, otherwise it will sneak in."

Adam.

"I'm here to protest Trump because his entire agenda is just extreme right-wing bigotry that will inflict massive misery on ordinary people, whether they're women, whether they're working class, whether they're gay, whether they're migrants, whether they're black, whether they're Mexican. He wants to increase the funding for the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] border control forces, he wants to repeal [abortion ruling] Roe v. Wade, he wants to give the police more militarised weaponry of the kind we saw unleashed at Ferguson. And he will do all those things unless he's forced and stopped, and that's why it's so inspiring today to see these people out today."

Jean.

"I'm here today trying to collect signatures, trying to say that we've got to stop the Trumpism of Australian politics. The racist populism we've seen in America is very much alive here with the Turnbull government's policies about Muslims and refugees, and also with the very scary rise of Pauline Hanson. So we're talking about building an anti-racist, fightback movement and we've got to start that here today."

Belle.

"I think it's important that we recognise that we're all sisters and brothers, and we're all connected all around the world."

Sunni.

"I'm marching because I didn't like what happened last year, in relation to hatred. There seemed to be a lot of hate in the world and I think we can do better than that."